Nick- The point here is that
there is no difference between open and closed bolt.
Every marker made, from the Splatmaster and Rapide, up to the IR3, A4 and everything in between, fires when the bolt is closed. All of them. Every single one.
That is, after all, the point of the bolt- to close off the breech, so that the burst of compressed gas can do it's job, propelling the ball down the barrel.
Yes, there's a few designs, like the old Nova, the ICE Epic and the Alien doohickey, that don't use a "bolt" per se, but the point is the same- they have some way of closing off the breech to that the air pushes the ball down the barrel, and doesn't escape elsewhere- out the loader neck, for example.
The key here is that SP has been
actively promoting the idea of closed-bolt being "better" somehow, than open bolt. They've been saying this for years, pretty much since the first Shocker first came out (that and how much better low pressure was.)
And now, since they couldn't get the closed-bolt version of the new Shocker 03 working (at least well and reliably) they went with a very-close knockoff of the Matrix, and made it open bolt.
And so now they're looking at six or seven years of closed-bolt hype, and trying to release an open-bolt gun against that. It would have been one thing if the marker had a different name, but this is the
Shocker, the low-pressure, closed bolt, shoots-a-mile-further marker.
So true to form, the Gardners invent yet more hype to cover the details- "Seal Forward Technology" is a newspeak way of saying "closed bolt emulator" like BE used to hype the Rainmaker with, and was used for the Angel for a short while. SFT simply means the bolt moves forward to close off the breech just before firing,
just exactly like every other marker on the planet does.
Spyders, in fact, use "seal forward technology", as do the old VM-68s and 68 Specials. Oh, and 'Mags, and Illustrators, Golden Eagles, Sydarms, Matrixes, Angels, Firestorms, Black Draguns, GT 99s, Jokers, Infernos, Shutters, Poisons, Raiders, Vipers, M98s and A5s, STXs, Piranhas, Rebels and PT Enforcers.
It's an interesting look into how the Gardners' minds work.
The Excalibur is the only true electro pnematic closed bolt marker, in which 2 seperate solenoids and rams are used.
-Well, except for the already-mentioned Sandridge 'Cocker (which has two air solenoids, one to run the cocking ram and another to run the sear ram) as well as both the RaceGun and E-Blade kits (which have one air solenoid for the cocking ram and one mechanical solenoid to trip the sear) and both versions of the original Shocker (PVI and SP, both of which had an integrated bolt/ram run by one solenoid, and were fired by a second solenoid.)
So sure, other than all those, the Excal is the only one.
Doc.
